In Nepal, imports of electric vehicles have surpassed those of petrol-powered ones. In the first half of the current financial year, which ended in mid-January, Nepal imported 12,974 four-wheeled vehicles, of which 7,349 were battery-electric.
Nepal is well on the way to completely replacing combustion engine imports with electric vehicles by 2031, writes the Kathmandu Post. In addition to private cars, four-wheeled vehicles also include mini- and passenger buses. It is thus necessary to speak more generally of ‘electric vehicles’ at this point – as the Nepalese statistics do not make a precise distinction between cars and minibuses.
However, the origin of the electric vehicles is known: 5,434 imported electric vehicles came from China and 1,890 from India. That leaves only 25 vehicles imported from other countries. The article mentions South Korea, Germany, and the US, but no models.
That is also reflected in the value determined by Nepal’s Department of Customs. Electric vehicles from China were worth 14.36 billion Nepalese rupees (the equivalent of 99.3 million euros or 18,270 euros per vehicle), 2.93 billion rupees were paid for imports from South Korea (20.3 million euros or 10,740 euros per vehicle) and 162 million rupees (1.12 million euros) for the 25 vehicles from the rest of the world. At an average of 44,800 euros per vehicle, vehicles imported from South Korea, Germany, and the US were significantly more expensive.
According to the report, Rajan Babu Shrestha, Vice President of the Nepal Automobile Dealers Association, also attributes the growth to lower bank interest rates, which have boosted the import of private and commercial vehicles (especially minibuses for passenger transport). In other areas, such as trucks and construction vehicles, imports have declined due to lower government spending on infrastructure.
The current financial year runs until mid-July 2025. In the previous financial year, which ended in summer 2024, a total of 11,701 electric vehicles worth 29.48 billion rupees (203 million euros) were imported to Nepal (+149 per cent). If the second half of the financial year 24/25 is similar to the first half, EV imports would again increase – although probably not by 149 per cent.